Renewable energy powers up in 2018 with fast growth

Renewable energy sustained rapid growth in 2018, making the country's energy mix greener to build a "clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient" energy system in line with China's pursuit of high-quality development, according to a report released by China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute on Wednesday.

The 2018 China Renewable Energy Development Report, offering in-depth analysis of the development of major types of renewable energies in China, said installed capacity of renewables in China reached 728.96 gigawatts by the end of 2018, with a year-on-year increase of 11.7 percent, which accounted for 38.4 percent of the total installed capacity in 2018.

Installed capacity was 352.26 gigawatts for hydropower (including 29.99 GW of pumped storage capacity), 184.26 GW for wind power, 174.63 GW for solar power, and 17.81 GW for biomass power.

The share of renewable energy in primary energy consumption climbed from 7.66 percent in 2011 to 12.39 percent in 2018.

The total renewable power output reached 1,867 terawatt-hours, accounting for 26.7 percent of total power output, and increased 10.1 percent from 2017. Hydropower output (including pumped storage power) was 1,232.9 TWh, wind power output 366 TWh, solar power output 177.5 TWh, and biomass power output 90.6 TWh.

Hydropower output in 2018 increased 3.2 percent from 2017, while the output for wind power, solar power and biomass power increased 26.3 percent year-on-year.

While the contribution of hydropower output to total renewable power output decreased to 66 percent in 2018 from 87 percent in 2011, output of wind power, solar power and biomass power increased from 13 percent in 2011 to 34 percent in 2018 among total renewable power output.